Texas Senate race

In a day-long special report, Texas on the Potomac is examining the influence of money in the Texas Senate race, with a look at the numbers and a ranking of the top 10 states with the most donors to each Republican runoff candidate.

The top lobbyist contributor to federal campaigns this election season funneled about $2,500 into Ted Cruz’s campaign. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

The conservative favorite scored the money from C. Boyden Gray, a lobbyist who has donated $227,300 to Republican candidates this election cycle — the most of any lobbyist in the country, according to data released by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Cruz also picked up $2,500 from Gray’s family members.

Gray, a former ambassador to the European Union who is also a partner the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm Gray & Schmitz LLP, served as legal counsel to George H. W. Bush during his vice presidency and after he entered the Oval Office.

He is a co-chairman of FreedomWorks, a conservative group that has poured more than $120,000 into the Texas Senate race in support of Cruz, according to Federal Election Commission records analyzed by the Houston Chronicle.

The former Texas solicitor general additionally saw $2,000 in contributions from family members of Jeffrey MacKinnon, a lobbyist who ranked No. 20 on the’ list of top lobbyist donors to 2012 campaigns. But Mackinnon’s family members also sent $500 to the campaign coffers of his opponent, establishment-backed Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

Family members of Wayne Berman, the lobbyist who sent the sixth-largest sum to federal campaigns and served as a senior adviser to former President George W. Bush and former vice president Dick Cheney during their transition into the White House, also donated $500 to Dewhurst.